BRAIN HEMINGWAY Comes to Edinburgh Festival Fringe

New play "Brain Hemingway" premiering at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe grapples with the gritty and complicated internal dialogue of Erin Murray Quinlan and a legendary American writer.

Reluctant Ernest Hemingway fan, Erin Murray Quinlan, debuts her new play about (it's not really about him) the legendary American writer as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The two-person (but one woman) show will have its world premiere at Greenside @ Infirmary Street from August 5-13th & 15-20th 2022.

Titled Brain Hemingway, Erin has created a play based on her own personal suffering of an almost constant, negative inner voice of the award winning author living inside her head. He reminds her of previous bad reviews, lowers her self esteem, stops her from completing tasks and cripples her with dread. Playing the spirit of Hemingway is Evan Quinlan, Erin's husband, who brings to life this battle of wills between writers at the pair's first visit to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Structured as a form of 'möbius strip' (where the writing generally repeats in loops), Erin details the struggle of writing the piece she performs. The script was developed in workshops with writer and composer of stage musicals, Paul Boyd, who previously collaborated with Erin in London in 2015 on Hemingway's Wife.

Erin Murray Quinlan said: "The impact of the pandemic on mental health has been challenging for all, including those working in performing arts. Many have to cope with feelings of dread, uncertainty and being left alone with their thoughts. I'm looking forward to bringing this to light and sharing my version of Hemingway with an audience. Brain Hemingway chronicles negative thoughts and feelings of being overwhelmed, but is a cathartic experience of discovering more positive thinking."

Erin Murray Quinlan is a published playwright and composer, with credits off-Broadway including God Save Queen Pam. She is an alumna of Berklee College of Music, the EAMA Nadia Boulanger Institute in Paris, University of Oxford, and the BMI Lehman Engel Advanced Musical Theater Workshop.

Evan was a member of Boston's 11:11 theatre company, he has performed in productions including The Seagull, The Great Heathersby Heist, and Poe: A Fever Dream. Off-Broadway he originated the role of Digby in God Save Queen Pam.

Books such as Mrs Hemingway (Naomi Wood) portray how the legendary American writer treated his wives and friends. Although his achievements in the arts and culture are undoubted, his portrayal in Brain Hemingway may be more difficult to view for American audiences.

Sixty years from the death of the most famous writer of his generation, Brain Hemingway presents a different side of the iconic author. Not always Hemingway as he was, but how he's become a toxic mishmash in the brain of Quinlan.

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